World of Glass
by TerraZeal
Summary: Takes place during/after Tall Tales. Mention of Gabriel/Sam unrequited. Sam knows they killed a clone of Gabriel, but let him go anyway.


_**Author's Note: **Just watched Tall Tales on my S2 of Supernatural DVD set. This is the only reason I bought the entire season. I hate all episodes but this one. Anyway, story thoughts! Gabriel/Sam unrequited hinted at. This IS the first time they meet, after all, but Gabey falls in love with Sam almost at first sight. Obviously no Dean/Cas because Cas wasn't even in this season. Or was he...? Hah. Song owned by Tristania. Sort of a "deleted scene" story with Sam and the Trickster alone._

_**World of Glass**_

_I'll fulfill all your dreams  
>Every fantasy<br>I will be  
>What you need<br>Satisfaction guaranteed..._

Bobby had explained that what they were hunting was a Trickster. A sort of demi-god thing that liked to fuck with peoples' heads. That explained why Sam and Dean were always sniping at each other lately. Why Sam's computer was frozen on Busty Asian Beauties...why Dean's car was messed up...when neither of them touched either. This trickster was just a dick.

They both had an idea of who the trickster was. Still, they couldn't just barge in and shiv him without proof. Dean wanted to, but Sam had insisted on proof. So they headed to Crawford Hall.

The janitor was a lot younger than most were, which was also a bit of a hint, but it didn't mean he was guilty of murdering people or making them slow dance with aliens. It might just mean he had wanted to be a janitor for a long time or something. Though Sam couldn't see why.

Under the cover of electricians still, they again found the janitor and said they needed to check some rooms upstairs. Sam mumbled something about having forgot something in the car. The janitor turned his green eyes on Sam, locking eyes with him for the first time.

Sam felt something like a jolt. Almost as if...they'd met before? But that was impossible.

Gabriel, archangel, Loki, Trickster, was a bit stunned when his eyes met the younger Winchester brother's. Yes, he knew who they were. They were important, to everything. In the beginning, before he had become the Trickster, he knew who they were and what they were for.

He hadn't expected Sam, Lucifer's vessel, to be so...he had no words for it, really. He was handsome, certainly, but so was Dean. There was something about Sam that just...drew him in. He stood there and stared at Sam a few more seconds before finally dragging his gaze away and smiling and waved him away.

Dean insisted they go upstairs. Gabriel grudgingly agreed, glancing back at Sam, who had appeared to vanish outside to his truck. He'd wished it were Sam going upstairs alone with him, for some reason. Dean annoyed him. And Dean knew. He could feel it. Dean wanted to stake him right there on the stairs, but did not. Dean inspected the upstairs rooms, doing nothing he hadn't already. Gabriel just stood back and watched him, disgust creeping into his features.

THIS thing was brilliant archangel Michael's vessel? He was so stupid he probably couldn't piss straight. It should have been the other way around...Sam, the smart, handsome one should have been Michael's vessel. In the end fight, Michael would win anyway, killing Lucifer, killing...Sam. It would be a fuckin' curbstomp battle if Michael got Dean. Lucifer/Sam wouldn't stand a chance.

He'd left Heaven to be a trickster because he didn't want to deal with family and angel politics. Now, it looked like he was drawn into them anyway. He wasn't lying to himself when he said he liked Sam and Dean. Well, perhaps when he thought about Dean...but not Sam. Sam was...special. Something about him was special.

There was determination in those features. Intelligence in those dark eyes. That body...even his body was very nice. He'd just had a nice night fucking two very beautiful women, that he'd conjured out of thin air, but he didn't think they compared to Sam. He hadn't fucked a man in a very long time, and Sam awakened feelings long lost in him.

Eventually, Dean got done 'inspecting' the rooms and he and Sam left the building. Gabriel watched them, listened to them, argue through the upstairs window. A trick. As if they don't think a trickster knows a trick when he sees one.

Gabriel smiled and turned from the window. He closed and locked the door of the room he was in. As a trickster, he had to keep up appearances. Tricksters liked sweet things. So he kept that trickster tradition going. Not that it was hard. He too adored sweet things. His brothers had always teased him about his sweet tooth and love of human cakes, chocolates, and other delectable things.

Snapping his fingers, the room changed from abandoned office to a cozy, expensive motel-looking room, complete with table full of ice cream, cakes, and other sweets to keep him occupied. Gabriel started digging into the sugary feast, thinking about Sam Winchester.

"What do we do now? We know its the janitor." Sam said this as soon as they were well away from the place.

"Hopefully he fell for our little argument trick. I'll pace around here acting pissed at you, you go grab Bobby and a few bloody stakes. If all goes well, we'll have ourselves a dead trickster pretty soon." Sam nodded as Dean walked back to the place to pace around cursing Sam.

Sam slid into the car and started to drive back to Bobby.

"So, you guys know its me, do you? Bravo. Clap clap! I knew you were the smart one as soon as I saw you."

Sam jerked, almost running off the road. He pulled over, and turned around, to see the janitor in the passenger seat, no longer wearing his janitor uniform, but a T-shirt and a pair of disgusting silky boxers.

"Get out of here. I have a bloody stake in my jacket that I won't hesitate to use on you. I knew it was you all along. If it weren't for you fucking with our heads, I'd have found out much sooner."

Gabriel laughed. "It wouldn't have been NEARLY as fun! I loved the looks on you guys' faces when you heard the story about the slow dancing alien! That was hilarious."

Sam reached over to try and grab the Trickster. He just vanished and appeared outside the car, leaning in the window, close to Sam's face as soon as he'd spun around to look for the dick.

"Sam...Sam...Sam...you don't get it, do you? I like you, you and your brother...I can give you anything your heart desires...all you have to do...is let me go. Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back!" The Trickster grinned that devious smile of his.

"No. Like Dean said, and Bobby, you things are nasty. You like to hurt people. KILL people. If you think we're gonna just let you walk away, you're stupid." Sam snarled. This trickster really expected him to let him go for the offer of...what? Illusions?

Gabriel leaned in closer to Sam, so his face was level and very close to Sam's. "No. I don't expect you to let me go at all. You're not stupid Sam. Your brother on the other hand. Well..." The Trickster had whispered this to Sam. His face was far too close to Sam's for his liking. Sam resisted the urge to punch him. It would do no good, not really.

"If you don't expect us to let you go, why are you sticking around and not running already? And if you hurt Dean, I swear I'll-"

Gabriel grinned. "You'll what? Kill me? Good luck with that, buddy." The Trickster hesitated, part of him wanted to kiss Sam...some strange, weird part of him...wanted to kiss the man that really wanted nothing more than to kill him. Or did he? Gabriel could feel emotions, and he truly had meant what he'd said when he said he would kill Gabriel if he hurt Dean, but nothing else said he wanted to kill the Trickster. Just his words, and words could be twisted so easily.

Sam was a little confused as to why the Trickster just stood there, leaning over his car window, staring at him. It couldn't hurt to take advantage of the situation...Sam reached into his jacket, only to find the bloody stake missing.

"Looking for this, big boy?" Sam turned around. The Trickster had somehow got the stake from Sam and was playing with it, tossing it in the air and just basically acting like a total douche.

Sam took advantage of his distracted state and pulled the car away. "I hope you stab yourself." Sam shouted this as he drove away from the Trickster. He hoped the douche wouldn't reappear in his car. Luckily for Sam, he didn't and the rest of the ride to Bobby was douche-free.

Dean did as they had planned. Stood around for awhile, cursed out Sam, then went into the building himself. After a bit of searching around, music was coming from a stage-like area. He entered to find two nearly naked, very hot women, and a very gaudy disco ball and circular bed. This looked like something from one of his pornos. If he didn't know what was doing it, he'd totally have taken advantage of the situation, and the women.

Something that felt like a slap nearly knocked him to his knees. He could have sworn he heard a voice telling him DO NOT GO NEAR THOSE WOMEN DEAN! But it WAS a Trickster he was dealing with. He approached the women on the bed. One patted the bed seductively and said they'd been waiting for him and wanted to give him a massage.

Soft clapping and a voice drew his attention away from the scantily clad women. He turned around. The janitor, of course. He claimed they were a peace offering and said some other babble that Dean ignored. He was waiting for Sam and Bobby. Where WERE they?

One of the women came up behind him. Dean sensed she was about to attack him. Suddenly, Sam and Bobby burst through the doors on either side of the auditorium, both armed with bloodied stakes. _Nothing like waiting til the last minute, guys_. Dean thought.

After some fighting, and some amusing quips from the Trickster, Dean found himself lying on the ground, very, very close to the Trickster. His stake was nearby...Dean twisted, grabbed the stake, spun around, and plunged it into the Trickster's stomach, as he was babbling about something. The Trickster's face contorted into confusion, all the laughter gone from his eyes.

Sam and Bobby rushed over. Sam watched those grey eyes go dead, the life vanish from them. The same thing that had tried to kill his brother. Something akin to fury welled up inside of Sam. He resisted the urge to kick the Trickster's corpse.

The girls and the bed and disco ball vanished. Sam, Dean, and Bobby rushed out of the building. Bobby yelling something about getting the hell out of dodge before someone found the janitor's body.

Back in the school, after erasing his clone from existence, Gabriel sat down in an empty seat and started to eat his candy bar with relish. This wasn't the last they'd see of him. From his real hiding place, he'd seen Sam's face. Somehow, Sam knew the thing they killed wasn't the real trickster. Why hadn't he told Dean and Bobby? Gabriel resolved to find out. He finished eating his candy bar and teleported away.

_Why did I do this? Why did I let that thing go?_ Sam was groaning to himself. He saw it. He could tell from the thing's eyes. It wasn't the real Trickster they'd killed. He let them walk out of there with that thing still alive. _Why? Why did I do that!_

"I'm wondering the same thing." A familiar voice. "Why did you let me go? You're smart. Very smart. You saw my eyes. My real eyes. You knew the clone of me sitting in that chair wasn't real."

Sam turned, knowing who he would see behind him. "Trickster. I'm wondering the same thing right about now. You murdered people. I don't know why I let you go."

"Maybe because you know I'm not evil? Not really. As I told your idiot brother, hoisted by their petard. That guy I killed who fell out the window? Raped or seduced tons of young women. The guy with the anal probes and the aliens? Just a total douche. The guy who was eaten by a gator? Abused animals and used them for sick experiments. Sure, maybe THAT ONE didn't deserve to be murdered, but you can't deny the others got what was coming to them."

Sam rubbed his head, glad he was drinking at a bar well away from Dean and Bobby. "Who are you? Really? Bobby said Tricksters are demi-gods, or gods in general. Which one are you? Which Trickster god? I was reading about Trickster gods after Bobby told us what we were dealing with."

Gabriel shrugged. He couldn't tell Sam his true identity. As if Sam would even believe him. "Loki. Okay? Loki. From Scandinavia. I left there because the Norse are totally boring. They don't get a kick out of any of my jokes anymore."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Imagine that. Well, buddy, not all your jokes are the completely hilarious things you think they are."

Loki shrugged again. "Perhaps not to some. Even YOU thought the alien thing was hilarious, you have to admit it. I could almost feel you laughing when you heard that frat guy's story. Anyway, thats still neither here nor there. I'll ask you again. Why did you let me go?"

Sam stared at Loki for a long while. At those brilliant green eyes and his dishwater blonde hair. The Trickster god just stood there, waiting patiently for an answer.

"I don't know. For some reason, I felt like I should. I can't explain it any better than that. Loki or whoever the hell you are, just go. You're free to move on. Free to go away, go piss off other towns." Sam took a drink of his beer, grudgingly turning his back on Loki.

"Sam. Thank you. For everything." The Trickster gave Sam a small bow and disappeared in a ripple of silver-white light.

Sam watched the spot where Loki had vanished for quite some time, as if expecting him to reappear. When he didn't after awhile, Sam turned back to his beer, still thinking about Loki.


End file.
